US Flags Alibaba, Baidu, BYD for Allegedly Aiding Chinese Military

The Pentagon has flagged a list of prominent Chinese firms it believes to be supporting the Chinese military, including e-commerce marketplace Alibaba, internet giant Baidu, and electric carmaker BYD. Released in a Federal Register notice scheduled to publish on Wednesday, the list covers a broad range of companies, including artificial intelligence, solar, biotech, and electronic batteries. The determination comes roughly three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump visited Beijing for the U.S.-China summit, which concluded with no major trade agreements reached. It describes each of the three Chinese firms as a “military-civil fusion contributor” to the Chinese defense industrial base, a term referring to the regime’s aggressive national strategy that integrates civil and commercial entities into military modernization....